I’ve written before about my fear and hate of bats. I am utterly and completely helpless when I see one and am reduced to a screaming, shaking mess.

Tuesday night I was packing lunches when Brent came out of the shower. I heard him yell “Don’t come in the dining room” but I thought he was being funny, so I went in there. THERE WAS A BAT!!!! I coward in a corner in the kitchen and screamed whenever it came swooping by. Eventually (probably like 1 minute tops), Brent made contact with the tennis racket and it was dead!

Wednesday night Brent got home before me, so imagine my panic when he called to say a bat had AGAIN been sighted, but flew into the bathroom and couldn’t be found. I was crying and threatening to spend the night elsewhere unless the bat was killed.

Thanks to Baby and Red, the bat was flushed out of the bathroom and killed. But that was enough!

As I write this, Josh and Robin from Environmental Pest Control are on my roof, inserting 1 way tubes to get the bats out. They’ll return later to seal all the cracks and holes. Does it cost an arm and a leg? Yes! Is peace of mind a bat a free house worth an arm and a leg? YES!!!!

This afternoon Baby and Red get to go to the vet for a rabies vaccination, since they helped bring the bat down. Shhh….they don’t know yet!

The minute I got out the door tonight, I knew it was the perfect weather run.

Sunny, but not blistering. Breezy but not windy. Warm but not hot. Shady but not cool. The kind of night that I’ll long for come the dead of winter, when it is dark by 6 pm, the wind roars at 20 mph, snow is blowing and it is 7 degrees out. When I’ll lovingly recall wearing my running skirt and hot pink tank top instead of 2 pairs of pants, wool socks, 3 tops, scarf, gloves and hat. When I my eyes sting from the snow and wind and my breath creates an icy layer on my scarf.

So instead of the 3 miles I had planned I did 4.35 miles. Just to take in the perfect night a little longer.

I averaged a 9:29 pace, which I’m more than pleased about, given that music keeps my pace up and I didn’t listen to music. Just the sounds of water, my foot steps, snippets of conversation and my thoughts to keep me company.

So when a girl in my TRX class, who is a local news anchor, said that the station was partnering with the Traverse City Visitor’s Bureau for a half-marathon at the end of the October it sounded perfect.

I hopped on-line, scooped out the website and decided that the Grand Traverse half-marathon would be the perfect fall half-marathon. Close enough to home (no hotel!) and in a beautiful location.

A few days later, I was looking to register for this race and the website was gone. I googled and searched and nothing.** I was thinking I was going crazy, when I finally found the link on active.com for the race. Scrolling down I read warnings to not register as the race director was a fraud. I quickly googled his name and the results confirmed the warnings: multiple lawsuits are pending against this man, who partners with visitor’s bureaus to hold these races and then takes the registration fees and doesn’t hold the races! I was almost had!

So currently there is no half-marathon in the books for me, but I’m still working on upping my mileage VERY slowly. Saturday was 6.5 miles in 1:01, which is pretty quick for me.

**So the half-marathon website is back up!!! Is the race on? What the heck??

Brent and I like to celebrate our various Anniversaries! Doing so seems to keep things exciting.

So last week was our four year Anniversary of getting engaged!

In the summer of 2007, my sister Emily was working on Mackinac Island. I hadn’t seen her for months, so Brent and I decided to go up there for the weekend. I took a half day off of work and got a message before driving to meet Brent at his parent’s house and heading to the Island. It has been a hard week, as I was forced to decide to put my cat down. Even though Charlotte was skittish, she was my first real pet as an adult and it was terribly hard to put her down.

Charlotte

On the ride up to the Island, I got up the courage and asked Brent when he saw us becoming engaged. He replied it was in his 2 year plan. Oh, it would have been sooner than that, as we had looked at rings over 6 months prior.

Sharing a big hug with Emily!

Friday night we went to dinner with my sister and Saturday was our adventure day. We rented a tandem bike and rode around the Island in the misty weather. We had stopped and hiked (121 stairs) to Arch Rock and were getting a little crabby as we rode back towards town.

Ready for a tandem biking adventureArch Rock

We decided to take a detour by Mission Point Resort. There was a pretty gazebo, so we got off our bike and headed over to it. A lady was inside reading so we started back to the bike. The rain and wind started picking up and the lady left. Brent suggested going back over to the gazebo. I was standing it in and he was on the steps tightening his shoe laces/down on one knee. I was blabbing on about how people get married in the gazebo and how it would be a pretty place for a wedding, when he interrupted me, took out the ring and asked “How about a nice place for a proposal? Will you marry me?” In disbelief, I asked “Are you serious?!?*” before squealing “YES!!” I was shaky and laughing as he slid the ring onto my finger. Just as I was saying “I wish there was someone around to take our picture” a family rode up on their bikes.

Just engaged!

I think the funniest part is that he had intended to propose at Arch Rock, but we were both irritable, so he scraped that plan. And that the ring was in his back pack the whole ride and his back pack was inches from my face when we were on the bike!

There is no one I'd rather spend my life with!

*Given his comment about becoming engaged being in his 2 year plan the night before, for an instant I thought he was playing a very cruel trick on me!

A few weeks ago Brent and I went to Urka Farms and picked strawberries! It was actually less work than I anticipated and I really enjoyed doing it.

What does one do with 12 pounds of strawberries? They get busy in the kitchen!

I made strawberry freezer jam.

And a chocolate covered strawberry pie! Brent and I both came up with this idea independently (he while mowing the lawn, me while hulling strawberries). I put chocolate ganache in the bottom and drizzled on top. It was very good!

I also put 2 gallon bags of strawberries in the freezer for use in smoothies and future baking endeavors.

Bring cream to a simmer and pour over chopped chocolate. Let stand for 3 minutes and whisk until smooth. Pour into bottom of pie crust, saving a little for drizzling. Chill in fridge.

Bring water, sugar and cornstarch to a boil, boil until thickened and clear (about 3 minutes), stirring frequently. Take off heat and stir in jello. Let cool and stir in strawberries. Pour into pie crust and chill until set (4 hours to overnight). Keep in the fridge, drizzle with remaining ganache before serving.

After an afternoon of strawberry picking and shopping, we decided that stopping by our favorite Traverse City pizza place was a must. So we headed downtown to Pangea’s Pizza Pub!

They have a lot of pizzas with a whole slew of unique combinations and toppings. Last time we were there we tried the Caribbean Jerk pizza that had red onion, green peppers, red peppers, chicken, pineapple and jerk seasoning.

This time we couldn’t decide, so we ended up getting 2 smalls and enjoying the leftovers for lunch today. We got a China Cherry Chicken Pizza
that had chicken, pineapple, green peppers, carrot, mozzarella cheese and sweet & sour sauce and a Mexican Pizza that had chorizo, green onion, avocado, cilantro, red peppers and corn. Both were really good, but I think I liked the China Cherry Chicken a smidge better.

So after a busy Saturday, which concluded with a walk around Grand Traverse Commons, I came home, drank a lot of water and went to sleep.

I’m hoping to run a fall half-marathon and am aware that I should begin some sort of training (official or not) should I decide upon a race. So I woke up this morning with thoughts of a wretched 2 miler on Friday fresh in my mind.

I made a PB&J, drank some water and mapped a 7 mile route and set a goal of 1:15 to finish it in. Maybe it was the pizza, my low expectations or the perfect weather but I cranked out 7.02 miles in 1:10:03!! I took a couple very brief walk breaks and a bathroom break (paused my time). It was a wonderful run that I enjoyed! I really pushed the last 1/2 mile or so when I calculated I could finish in about 1:10 and sprinted the last block. I even walk around the block to cool down, stretched, drank chocolate milk and rolled my legs!

For a blog titled “cooklaughmove” I sure don’t post about cooking (or baking) very much. So here is a recipe to change that!

Rhubarb is either loved or hated but rarely just tolerated. We grew up eating rhubarb pies, so I love it. My mom has a big patch in her yard that produces lots of delicious rhubarb. What I can’t bake up, I freeze for use later in the year. I have fond memories of a last rhubarb pie being baked in a very hot house around the 4th of July and being enjoyed piping hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Last night I had time on my hands and rhubarb in my fridge, so I pulled out my mom’s tried and true recipe and got to work making a crisp of sorts (I wasn’t ambitious enough to tackle pie crust).

Mix eggs, sugar, flour and spices together until well blended. Stir in rhubarb and pour into either a single pie crust or into a greased 9×9 baking dish.

Work the oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, butter, spices and salt together until crumbly and sprinkle on top of rhubarb mixture. Bake at 325* for approximately 45 minutes until set. Serve warm with ice cream. Keep leftovers refrigerated.